07 Feb 2019
Disney reaping rewards for park investments, says Bob Iger
BY Luke Cloherty
Disney chair and CEO Bob Iger has revealed that the company’s investments into its theme parks and resorts division has paid off, with substantial increases in popularity as a result.
Speaking during an earnings call, the Disney chief highlighted the various new areas the company is installing or has installed as proof of its continued ethos of investment in theme parks.
"We've been witnessing, over the last few years, a substantial increase in the popularity of our parks," he said.
"A lot of that has to do with how well they've been managed and the kind of investments that we've made, not just operationally but in expansion and the use of extremely popular IP.
"I think, particularly because of the nature of the investments, we've actually been fairly vocal and transparent about those investments.
"The two big Star Wars areas, the Toy Story Land that just opened up in Florida, the work that's going on in Hong Kong, Paris, Shanghai and Tokyo and all the great expansion and IP that we're putting in."
Iger noted also that the park is going to have to manage crowding as a result of the increased demand.
"What we're also trying to do is to use that popularity to manage the guest experience a little bit better. We know that crowding can be an issue and that when our parks are the most crowded, the guest experience is not what we would like it to be," he said.
"That popularity is going to continue and, with that, the enviable task of balancing that popularity with guest experience and price elasticity is going to come."
Iger also pointed out that Disney is looking to adjust pricing to maximise gains from all of this popularity and recoup on its investments in its parks.
"We're leveraging the popularity to obviously increase pricing and to spread demand and to get much more strategic about how we're pricing," he said.
"So the parks are still accessible but, in the highest peak periods, we're trying to basically manage the attendance so that the guest experience isn't diminished by the popularity."
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